A $2 Million Contributer

9:53 AM, Dec 5, 2012

Franklin Haney showed up on a list of no-profile political donors this week.

The real estate developer, long-time owner of the Holiday Inn downtown and TVA's Chattanooga landlord, was on a list of big donors in the presidential race that stayed below the radar. Haney, who has relocated to Washington D.C., contributed $2 million to two Super PACS ($1 million each) supporting President Barack Obama. He was among 12 low-profile big donors identified by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, reported by Politico.

Haney was long a big contributor to Democratic candidates in Tennessee. He is now the landlord for federal offices in Washington. He built the Holiday Inn downtown to coincide with the opening of the World's Fair and thwarted later efforts by the city of Knoxville to replace it with a larger hotel adjacent to the Knoxville Convention Center.